Campaign Background
This is a little about my MERP campaign
My Campaign is set in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries of the Third Age of the Sun in Middle Earth. This is 2000 years after Sauron was defeated by Gil-galad and Elendil and the One Ring was cut from his finger. It is another thousand years before the War of the Ring ( and the period of the book The Lord of The Rings). However the Shadow is rising again already. One of the Nazgul has become Witch King of Angmar and has already caused the division of Arnor into 3 kingdoms. Rhuadaur is under his power. Cardolan is a barren land now abandoned by most of its people . The Kingdom of Arthedain is the last remaining defiance to the Witch King. However the threat of invasion from the North is always present . Orc and trolls raid accross the border frequently. At this time there is a need for heroes to defend the Kingdom and the West against the Shadow . The players are these heroes. In my game they are a mixture of races and character classes. Their motivations differ from a desire to defeat evil, through self protection to creating a personal empire!
Map of the campaign area
Allies and Enemies
The party may find friends and allies in the Dunedin Kingdom of Arthedain. The Shire and the town of Bree may also welcome them . The Half Elf Elrond of Rivendell could offer a haven of safety. Further south the common men of Tharbad may be both friends and enemies. To the North and east of Arthedain is the Orc Kingdom of Angmar - a definate enemy. The hillmen and Dunlendings of Rhuadaur now work for Angmar. Other than these organised enemies the wilds are full of roving orcs and trolls. There are wolfs and warg packs in the wilderness also. The barrow downs are haunted by wights. There are also undead in many places unerground and in the abandoned villages that litter Arnor. As can be seen Eriador is teeming with enemies to kill (or be killed by!)
My Campaign Material
The scenarios I have included are not in any given order. You are free to use and adapt as you wish. In my campaign there are several ongoing plots:
The main plot is the ongoing battle between the Party and the Enemy as personified by Zarg.He is a powerful Uruk Hai who is a trusted lieutenant of the Witch King of Angmar. Both the party and Zarg are constantly plotting against each other.
The campaign has had phases at present an ongoing theme is the search for the pieces of the Palantir of Theirgon : a potent item . They have found 4 pieces in the last 4 years( in various locations including Lond Daer and Moria). As for the last : where is it?? That would be telling.
The party are creating a small empire based on the Castle of Bar en Dindol near Bree granted to the uncle of a party member by the King of Arthedain.The aquisition of land, castles and ships is a side line which creates adventure options.
Various characters have there own peronal objectives. Ugh is a Paladin and strives to create the perfect warrior.
To these ends the campaign consists of a mix of large scale dungeons.(The largest being Moria, My advice to DMs is to leave this until far on in a campaign as it absorbed about 24 gaming hours real time and some 4 weeks of gaming time- it is BIG), short small adventures in little castles and forts, quite a lot of wilderness adventures and a good dollop of town/city encounters.
Oh yes a brief note about game balance. A few folk have pointed out that the levels , Ob etc are very high . This is true. There are 2 main reasons . Firstly we have been playing for about 6 years real time so the characters are all at least 11th level , one is 20th. Secondly I made an error when coverting from MERP 1st ed to Rolemaster 3 years ago and skills ranks in my campaign go on meaning a 5% increase in bonus . Just adjust down for your campaign and all will be well.